Confronting Savage Inequalities with Joy - Center for Inspired Teaching

May 18, 2016

(Photo credit: Brittney Oswald/Center for Inspired Teaching)

This piece – written by Aleta Margolis, Inspired Teaching’s Founder and Executive Director – appeared in Inspired Teaching’s May 2016 newsletter.

At this year’s special 20th anniversary celebratory gala, Chocolate Inspiration, I was delighted to present Inspired Teaching’s Changemaker Award to Jonathan Kozol. As a prolific author and prominent activist, Jonathan has inspired thousands upon thousands of educators and parents – myself included – to fight for a brighter future and a more just present for all children in the United States. He has demanded that we step outside our comfort zones and confront the complex problems of poverty, racism, and educational inequality. While remaining fiercely committed to challenging the status quo, he has never lost his respect for teachers or his deep love for children. Our work at Center for Inspired Teaching is proudly founded upon the same values.

When Inspired Teaching’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Jane Dimyan-Ehrenfeld, first reached out to Jonathan Kozol, she was a new teacher in a Boston public school. Like many urban public school teachers, she was endeavoring to balance, as she put it, “being in love with my students and in love with their dreams with the terrible realities of the schools and neighborhoods in which they were growing up.” Jonathan understood. Over time, he became a regular visitor to her first grade classroom in the Roxbury section of Boston, where he had started his own career as a teacher. Moved by his interactions with Jane and her students, he wrote a book about them: Letters to a Young Teacher.

The book includes Jonathan’s characteristic focus on the “savage inequalities” of the US school system. It’s not just about resources; it’s about the kind of teaching that kids in different schools get to experience. Jonathan loved visiting Jane’s classroom because it was characterized by joy and authentic engagement in learning. Like the classrooms of all Inspired Teachers, it was based on the (proven!) premise that all young people are innately curious, want to learn, and are born with the ability to grapple with complex problems and invent solutions. Jane’s classroom was animated by the belief that students are not empty heads to fill, but rather, the owners of powerful minds who come to school excited to use those minds and with the potential to transform their communities when they do.

When students learn in this way, they build the skills and dispositions they need to be thriving, happy, and productive citizens in our complex and rapidly changing world. When teachers teach in this way, we bring about what Jonathan calls “a badly needed rebirth of jubilant vitality, healthy spontaneity, creativity, and sheer humanity and love back into our nation’s public schools.” This is Inspired Teaching’s vision.

It’s not easy. Teaching based in authentic engagement means the teacher isn’t merely asking kids to memorize content; instead, she asks them to question, explore, challenge, master – and then question again. The teacher expects more. And the teacher, especially at schools in low-income communities and communities of color, operates in an environment where her classroom often looks different than the norm. He has to be a true changemaker, convincing skeptics that this is the kind of teaching all kids need.

Our mission at Inspired Teaching is to support teachers who share this vision and are working to change the norm. Teachers like the Inspired Teaching Institute alum who helps students approach challenging work with the belief that they can be successful; teachers like those who have already joined the 2016 cohorts of BLISS, SCALE, and the Inspired Teacher Certification Program; and teachers like those whom Jonathan Kozol met this April at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School, which he described as “the flowering of many of the ideas I’ve held for many years.”

We hope to find even more of those teachers and to create a school system that nurtures them. If you’re a charter school teacher or administrator in DC, contact us about joining our transformative teacher leadership programs, BLISS and SCALE, starting this summer. If you want to get to know our teachers and students and celebrate their hard work over this past year, come to Changemakers in Action, our end of year celebration on the evening of June 7. If you share our vision and know others who do, too, introduce them to Inspired Teaching. Join the movement and be part of our work transforming the education system so that school is the best it can be for every child and every teacher.

Micaiah Anderson

Community Outreach Specialist

As a Community Outreach Specialist, Micaiah is responsible for program promotion and outreach support for Inspired Teaching events and workshops. Micaiah has a passion for collaborating with community members to build-power and connect. She is an educator with a heart for youth and has experience supporting students fight injustices within their schools and communities. She has a BA in Political Science from, the real HU, Hampton University & anticipates graduating in May 2024 with a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Policy Transformation from Georgetown University.

AUTONOMY

"I want to have a say in what happens to me."

Autonomy is the need for independence; the ability to make choices, to create, to explore, and to express oneself freely; to have sufficient space, to move around, and to feel unrestricted with opportunities to exercise free will.

Brady Maiden

Outreach Coordinator

As the Outreach Coordinator, Brady helps maintain Inspired Teaching’s social media presence and supports the organization’s mission to connect with DC community leaders, educators, and parents. Brady has her Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University and her BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is passionate about community, equity, and coalition building recognizing that learning and growing with the community at large is how we continue to be impactful.

What brings you joy in life?

I find joy in spending time with my friends and family and meeting new people. I like going to concerts and festivals, and finding new books to read.

The Learner’s Cycle, Wonder-Experiment-Learn, and the Teacher’s Cycle, Observe-Plan-Instigate, comprise Inspired Teaching’s approach to engaging students in inquiry-based learning.

When they are engaged in the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, students are immersed in learning. They take the lead in designing authentic learning experiences around their own interests and their school’s standards of learning. Each discovery leads to a new question which in turn leads to more wondering and more learning. In the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, Learn is not a destination or an endpoint; it is a deeper understanding, leading to a deeper wondering and new possibilities that create new entry points to further exploration. The cycle continues because what students have learned generates more wonderings that require more experiments that foster more learning – and on and on.

The Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle is the work of an Inspired Teacher. While a student is expected to follow the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, the teacher joins them on the learning journey while following their own cycle of Observe-Plan-Instigate. This cycle ultimately serves to ensure an inquiry-based atmosphere is at play in the classroom.

Jaqueta Abbey

Teaching and Learning Specialist

Jaqueta is the Teaching and Learning Specialist for Inspired Teaching. In addition to her current role with Inspired Teaching, Jaqueta is a first-grade teaching assistant. Her background features a variety of traditional and non-traditional experiences in the field of education, including working as an adjunct professor, teaching summer reading programs to children and adults, and tutoring children in the foster care system. Jaqueta earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

What brings you joy in life?

Creative self-expression! In addition to my passion for storytelling, I love dancing of all kinds. I've studied belly dance, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk among other styles. I also enjoy glass fusing, crocheting, photography, and cross stitching. These art forms allow me to express myself and build connections with other people at the same time. I think life would be a lot less vibrant without artists and storytellers!

Michelle Welk

Communication & Marketing Specialist

As Communications and Marketing Specialist, Michelle is responsible for finding and creating new ways to highlight Inspired Teaching and promote its programs in order to expand and deepen the organization's impact. Michelle has worked in communications in an array of settings, from creative agencies to state politics to national nonprofits. She has a BA in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and is passionate about education, access, and equity.

What brings you joy in life?

My son, the beach, making a persuasive argument and good food!

Max Peterson

Real World History Assistant Teacher

Max received his Bachelor’s degree in History and African American Studies from Boston University in May 2016. He has worked in museum curation at the Museum of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Max has worked with young people of varying ages from young children to young adults transitioning to college.

Feedback and Accountability

We grow through feedback and an understanding that the quality of our work is a reflection of what we are learning, but the shift to remote learning this spring disrupted a lot of the tools teachers were used to using to evaluate student growth. How might we do things differently this fall? Participants in this workshop will explore ways to bring meaningful assessment into the virtual and/or socially-distanced classroom and approaches to student feedback that strengthen motivation, and build relationships and achievement.